From a good friend, who's perspective echoes my own and who's eloquence I am preserving here:
"Eve
Today I want to honor our Glorious Mother Eve, the Mother of all Living.
Some may wonder why? To answer this question we must look to the Creation. The Lord spent six days creating. On the sixth day man was created, Adam.
The Lord saw Adam alone and knew that it was not good for man to be alone. His creations were not quite complete. So they (yes here I affirm the existence of a living, loving Heavenly Mother, Gen. 1:26) created the crowning jewel of creation, woman. Eve. Named the Mother of all living. The help -meet- meaning the perfect partner, for Adam, the one who would be equal to him and to the task of helping Adam be all that God wanted and needed them both to be. And it was very good.
The Lord had created a beautiful garden place for them to live. Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the garden. They were innocent and did not know good from evil. They were given two Commandments: do not eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, and to multiply and replenish the Earth.
Some may think that these are not opposing Commandments. However, when we look closer at the scriptures, we recognize that there were no children in the garden. This is because they did not have knowledge. Adam could not "know" Eve.
Enter Satan. The great deceiver, destroyer and master of chaos. He thinking he could destroy the plan of God, introduces Eve to doubt.
Didn’t God say that you could eat all the fruit?
Doesn’t this one look delicious just like all the others?
Why can’t you eat this one then?
I know, it’s because the gods don’t want you to have knowledge like they do. (Gen 3:1-5)
I think some time passed in between Satan tempting Eve and partaking of the fruit. I think she thought a lot about the two Commandments God gave: not to eat the fruit and to multiply and replenish the Earth.
At this point, she didn’t know how to do that, she needed knowledge. So she partook of the fruit. Knowing full well that she would be cast from the garden and die. Yet she knew this is what she needed to do to fulfill God's greater commandment to multiply and replenish the Earth.
To fulfill her name, the Mother of all Living, she was willing to die to bring mankind into existence. To have children. Us.
Adam, seeing that she would be cast out and desiring to fulfill the commandment of the Lord to remain with Eve and multiply and replenish the Earth, also partook of the fruit. By doing so he was willing to die for Eve and mankind as well.
We know until this point they were innocent as the scripture says: their eyes were opened, and they recognized they were naked.(Gen 3:7)
In this modern world, and truly, for centuries, many mourn, the choice that Eve made to partake of the fruit, falsely thinking that if they hadn't eaten the fruit and just stayed in the garden, we would have no toil or trouble. Jesus would not have had to atone.
But this was not God’s plan. From the very beginning eating, the fruit was plan A. Agency of men is The Plan. Being able to choose and make choices about who we will be and how we will respond to opposition is The Plan. Work, hardship and death are The Plan. Choosing to Repent and follow God is The Plan! Jesus is The Plan! Oh what a merciful Plan!!
In the garden there was no opposition. No hard things to deal with. No pain. No death. They were eternal beings made in the image of God at one with Him in the Garden!
This also means that they could not know joy, sorrow, pain, triumph, happiness. Without one, you cannot know the other. Thus the scripture says that they transgressed the law. They did not sin. To sin, you must knowingly rebel. To transgress is to break a relationship. Eve and Adam did not rebel because they had no knowledge, they broke the personal relationship with God and so had to leave His presence aka.. The Garden.
Eve and Adam made the correct choice in Eden. They chose Knowledge which was sweet (as opposed to the fruit of the tree of Life which was bitter..life without knowledge would be bitter) and to learn in an environment with opposition, so that they could fulfill all the commands of God, most important of which was to bring mankind to the world.
So as I lay here in my bed, sick with the flu, and remembering the upcoming death day of my youngest son, I praise God for creating Eve, the Mother of all Living, because without her I would not be.
I would not be sick, I would not be well, I would not be happy. I would not be sad. I would not be lonely, I would not have friends. I would not be a mother to 8 wonderful children and Nana to 8 sweet grandchildren! I would not be joyfully married to Adam. I would not know and have a relationship with Jesus Christ because there would be no need.
So today I’m grateful to our first Mother whose courageous choice brought us here to experience all the ups and downs of mortal life, and the knowledge of a Perfect Plan to come back into relationship with God and Perfect Savior who voluntarily died so that I and my family can have the choice to love Him and return to Him!" --Tina Robertson, fb
